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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Justice Department Launches Probe Into Outing of CIA Agent; Rough Patch for Governor Gray Davis
Aired September 29, 2003 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
It seems like the good old days, doesn't it, or perhaps the bad old days depending on your point of view. There were calls in Washington today for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the White House.
It is, of course, not likely to happen. The country seemed to have its fill of special prosecutors during the Clinton years but it is an interesting argument. Can the administration be trusted to investigate itself over the outing of a CIA agent? We suspect the answer, as it so often does, depends on who you voted for.
The story begins the whip tonight. CNN's David Ensor starts us off, David, a headline from you tonight.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, at the request of the CIA the Justice Department is looking into whether laws were broken when the name of an undercover CIA officer was given to at least one journalist, allegedly by senior Bush administration officials. The move has ignited a storm of controversy here in Washington.
BROWN: David, thank you.
The White House next, the controversy landed there, our Senior White House Correspondent John King has the watch, John a headline.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the White House is insisting that that Justice Department investigation is enough. The White House says there's no need for an internal White House investigation, no need for a special counsel but to no surprise, perhaps, the Democrats running for president and Democrats in Congress say no way. They're putting pressure on the president to ask John Ashcroft to name a special prosecutor -- Aaron.
BROWN: John, thank you.
The do-not-call story became an alphabet soup today. CNN Financial Correspondent Fred Katayama with that, Fred a headline.
FRED KATAYAMA, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the FCC rushed to the aid of the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission had to put its do-not-call list on hold so the Federal Communications Commission said it will play cop and enforce the rules against the telemarketers. BROWN: We'll take notes as we go.
And, finally, to California, a rough patch for the Governor Gray Davis, CNN's Candy Crowley in Los Angeles, Candy a headline from you.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, you know those 135 names of people who want to be governor of California? Well, the current Governor Gray Davis is only focused on one. He thinks this is a race between him and Arnold Schwarzenegger and the polls indicate he may be right.
BROWN: Candy, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up in the hour ahead a story we think gets far too little play, the hundreds of troops who left part of themselves on the battlefield in Iraq and their battle back to health. It is a sad and inspiring story at the same time. Barbara Starr turned a terrific piece for us tonight.
And, as always, the stories making front page news tomorrow, our look at morning papers, rooster and all, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin tonight with a dark corner of a murky place with a lot to learn and a long way to go. There ought to be a better way of characterizing the affair brewing in Washington over the CIA operative, her husband, the White House and the war but there isn't not yet, certainly nothing quick and snappy like scandal or cover-up or anything with a "gate" in it, though at the end of the day, one day it may turn out to be all of the above or nothing at all.
So far we can only say two things for certain. There is clearly growing political dimensions to this and there are still far more questions than there are answers.
We have two reports tonight. We begin first with CNN's David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): At the request of CIA lawyers, the Justice Department is looking into whether to launch a full investigation into the leak of the name of a CIA operative, her face concealed here, at her husband Joseph Wilson's request.
JOSEPH WILSON, FORMER AMBASSADOR: I must say if it was just to -- out of spite or for revenge it is really, truly despicable.
ENSOR: Former Ambassador Wilson is the man sent by the CIA to investigate whether Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson says he debunked, though President Bush went on to mention it anyway during his State of the Union message. Wilson says the leak was payback for his criticism of the administration's Iraq policy.
WILSON: I believe that it came out of the White House. I have sources who have told me that.
ENSOR: This man does know where the story came from, Bob Novak, syndicated columnist and CNN contributor, named Wilson's wife as an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction in a July column quoting two senior administration officials. Now he's calling the controversy Bush bashing and declining to reveal his sources.
ROBERT NOVAK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July, I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing.
ENSOR: At the CIA four years ago, former President Bush, Sr. made his views about such leaks crystal clear.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have nothing by contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are in my view the most insidious of traitors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: U.S. officials say if caught a leaker could face considerable jail time since exposing a CIA covert operative is a felony and, of course, it can cause sources that have been developed over an entire career to run dry -- Aaron.
BROWN: What constitutes a crime here? Mr. Novak for printing this, one assumes, is not guilty of any crime so where would the crime be?
ENSOR: The crime would be in telling Mr. Novak and others we understand also. As many as six other journalists have been told what the name was of a clandestine CIA operative. U.S. officials when they become U.S. officials sign documents saying they won't do that and they understand it's a felony to do so.
BROWN: I don't want to parse Mr. Novak's words but what he said was he wasn't called. There is, as you indicated, the suggestion out there that whether he was or not a lot of other reporters were in an effort to plant the story.
ENSOR: Well, I know of one other at least who had a conversation with a Bush administration official in which the Bush administration official told them the name of this person, so there are at least two journalists that were told. Who called who, well Bob Novak says he did the calling.
BROWN: David, thank you very much, David Ensor in Washington.
On now to the White House where aside from a denial today the story had more to do with what didn't happen and what was not said.
Once again, our Senior White House Correspondent John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The president quickly left the room after this afternoon bill signing, ignoring shouted questions. His spokesman says Mr. Bush sees no need for an internal White House investigation and no need for an outside investigation by a special prosecutor.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: They should be pursued to the fullest extent by the appropriate agency and the appropriate agency is the Department of Justice.
KING: White House Chief of Staff Andy Card told senior staffers Monday anyone with information about the leak should contact the Justice Department but there was no formal directive to the White House staff and the president is not asking for an internal review despite reports the illegal leak came from within the White House.
MCCLELLAN: It's not our practice to go and try to chase down anonymous sources every time there's a report in the media.
KING: Ambassador Wilson initially blamed top Bush political adviser Carl Rove for the leak but Wilson now says he's not sure and Rove emphatically denies any role.
Democrats and other Bush critics are demanding a special prosecutor because they say Attorney General Ashcroft, a Bush appointee, cannot be trusted to lead such a sensitive investigation.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: There is a clear conflict of interest for the Justice Department.
KING: The Democrats running for president are joining the call for a special prosecutor, a reminder the Justice Department review raises both legal and political questions for a president who made honestly and integrity a major campaign theme.
JOHN PODESTA, FMR. CLINTON CHIEF OF STAFF, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: I think that the White House would be prudent right now to issue some at least warnings and directives to preserve e-mails, to preserve phone records, to take the kind of prudent steps that are necessary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: The White House says no such directives have been issued because the Justice Department has not asked for any records or any interviews that despite the fact that the CIA asked for this investigation several weeks ago.
Now, in a letter to the president tonight, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and several of his senior colleagues say that is proof to them that Attorney General Ashcroft is not taking this matter seriously. They say the president should immediately back and call on his attorney general to name an independent investigator -- Aaron.
BROWN: John, I expect this is a question I'm going to ask a couple times today. What if anything will keep this story alive, if that's a fair way to put it, or is it a kind of one or two day story that goes away because there's nothing new to report?
KING: Well, we haven't heard from the attorney general. That could come as early as tomorrow. He has the ball right now. He has to decide whether to go from a preliminary inquiry to a full inquiry. If he stops it at the preliminary inquiry and shuts it down you can be certain the Democrats will cry foul and we haven't heard directly from the president since we learned this investigation, the preliminary investigation was underway.
Those are the next two steps. What does the attorney general do? What does the president say? And, many here at the White House believe that if the pressure mounts in the days ahead that they'll have to do something here at least instruct the staff to make sure they don't destroy any phone records, any e-mail records.
They did that back in the Enron investigation but back then there were specific allegations. This White House says there's no specific allegation just yet so it won't do anything but that answer will now stand the test of the political debate.
BROWN: John, thank you very much, John King our Senior White House Correspondent.
It's fair to say Mike Allen's reporting in the "Washington Post" got this story back on the front pages. Mr. Allen will join us a little bit later in the program tonight to talk more about it.
There is other news of day to deal with first and we begin there with the do-not-call list. After three court rulings, a pair of bills in Congress, the FTC, the FCC and all the rest, only one thing seems clear. A lot of lawyers won't be going home this week for dinner.
For everyone else, included those of us here, the question remains come this Wednesday will our dinner come with aluminum siding for just three easy payments or not? Three courts have spoken and there's almost certainty more will come.
Here again, CNN's Fred Katayama.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATAYAMA (voice-over): The president wanted the public to focus on this.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So today I'm pleased to sign this important piece of legislation into law.
KATAYAMA: Mr. Bush did that to grant the Federal Trade Commission the authority to run its do-not-call list but a federal court ruling last week blocked the trade commission from implementing that starting Wednesday. Enter the Federal Communication Commission in the role as cop.
MARTIN POWELL, FCC CHAIRMAN: There has not been any court case that has in any way disturbed our rule and it is for that reason that we have every intention for them to go in effect as scheduled and enforce them as planned.
KATAYAMA: Consumers have registered more than 50 million numbers on the list which sought to fine telemarketers that violate their wishes but a judge ruled that the FTC list was unconstitutional because it violated free speech. The FTC's rules ban businesses from making unsolicited calls while allowing charities, politicians, and pollsters to do so.
MARTIN REDISH, PROFESSOR, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW: The Constitution is not a popularity contest and that's especially true of the First Amendment right of free expression.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KATAYAMA: The nation's largest telemarketing association said tonight it will not pursue legal action to stop the FCC. Meanwhile, the FTC has appealed the judge's ruling. Even FCC Chairman Powell concedes that the one thing that can stop all of the agencies is if the appeals court rules that the list is unconstitutional -- Aaron.
BROWN: OK. You got to help me with this. Just go back to the Denver court ruling which said the rule was unconstitutional. As we sit here tonight is that ruling in effect or is it not?
KATAYAMA: Well, as of right now that's in effect and that's why the FTC is doing -- is not doing anything and has put its list on hold. Now, the FTC has appealed that decision. Some legal experts predict that this might go all the way up to the Supreme Court if they can't settle it at the appeals court level. Whatever the appeals court decides, the side that loses is likely to request that the Supreme Court review it -- Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you very much. We'll keep working through this one.
There have been many names linked to corporate wrongdoing in the last couple of years but not much to show for it as it turns out. Today, the first big fish went on trial. Dennis Kozlowski, the former head of Tyco, faced charges of looting and really looting his company.
Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): In an era of corporate scandal and excess, Dennis Kozlowski has come to personify greed. The former chief executive of Tyco today entered the same New York State court where he pled not guilty to begin fighting criminal charges he used the company as his personal piggybank, looting $600 million in partnership with his chief financial officer and now co-defendant Mark Schwartz.
STEPHEN CUTLER, SEC ENFORCEMENT DIRECTOR: This is yet another case of corporate executives abusing their positions of trust.
CHERNOFF: Kozlowski's lifestyle has become famous for being so rich, $12 million in art, a Park Avenue apartment for his ex-wife, a mansion in this Boca Raton complex, and an $18 million Fifth Avenue duplex lavishly furnished with a $6,000 floral patterned shower curtain and a $15,000 antique umbrella stand.
When Kozlowski rose to the top of Tyco he joined the world of philanthropy on the company's bill, donating $5 million to his alma mater Seton Hall University. Defense attorneys have argued the company's auditors and board signed off on the stock grants, bonuses and forgiven loans that enriched Kozlowski.
(on camera): The Manhattan district attorney is using an organized crime statute to prosecute Kozlowski, enterprise corruption. Kozlowski faces an additional 30 criminal counts, including grand larceny. If convicted, he could face the maximum prison term of 30 years.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the battle over California coming down to two names, Davis or Schwarzenegger. Candy Crowley reports.
And later, a look at the positive side of what's happening in Iraq, rebuilding the country's school system, a break first.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: When asked for his favorite song, the first President Bush once said "Accentuate the Positive." Ronald Reagan was famous for his story of the boy digging through the stable because he knew there had to be a pony in there somewhere.
Optimism, or the appearance of it, is pretty much a job requirement in elected politics so what to make of Gray Davis. Eight days before the California recall election accentuating the positive just got tougher and going negative more tempting.
Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): One week to save his job and the governor has boiled this rowdy, complicate, never before race into an old story line, Davis versus Goliath.
GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: I weigh maybe 165 pounds on a good day. I'm ready to go to him toe-to-toe but he seems to be the one on the run here. CROWLEY: He's trying to goad Arnold Schwarzenegger into a debate or at least make it seem like he's afraid to debate. That's what underdogs do. The latest CNN Gallup poll shows Davis qualifies. Sixty-three percent of likely voters want to dump the governor. Forty percent would vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger on the second half of the ballot.
If polls can actually track this weird election that would make Schwarzenegger the frontrunner, which is why he won't debate, he's new to politics but he catches on fast.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm thinking about just to stay in message that's the most important thing.
CROWLEY: The governor, who spent the summer working on his softer, gentler side, has changed his game from bingo to hard ball.
ANNOUNCER: He ducks tough questions, didn't vote in 13 of the last 21 elections, and now he refuses to debate the governor he's trying to replace.
CROWLEY: Message, do you really want a newbie running California, a Republican newbie in a heavily Democratic state? However unusual this election it's down to politics 101. Davis in a corner returns to his base hoping to boost voter turnout. Monday, with an assist from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, it was Latinos.
Schwarzenegger on a roll wants to look inevitable and say as little as possible to avoid poll changing mistakes. The notoriously conservative Republican Party has endorsed Schwarzenegger. His poll numbers apparently spoke louder than his moderate social views. So, Republicans are falling in line, most of them.
TOM MCCLINTOCK (R), GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: To Gray Davis I say your debate challenge is accepted.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: That, of course, is conservative Republican Tom McClintock still in there kicking and accepting a debate he was never offered. That's what underdogs do. It is politics 101 -- Aaron.
BROWN: It is. What are the theories out there for what is a pretty significant change in the polling in two weeks?
CROWLEY: Well the theory in the Gray Davis camp is that the poll is wrong and there will be another poll out soon and that you can't really count who's going to vote. The other theory is that the debate came, which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger and the internal polling shows us that, in fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger picked up some good support during that debate.
The other thing is that Gray Davis, of course, has signed that bill that allows illegal aliens to have driver's licenses in California and that's upset a lot of voters. So, kind of put all that together and it could lead to something like this, although I caution you again that the Gray Davis camp says tomorrow is another day and probably another poll.
BROWN: Well, we'll give you that actually and Lieutenant Governor Bustamante going nowhere, sort of stuck between 25 and 30- ish.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. Well, actually in this poll he was down to 18, which says to you -- which sort of explains Davis' strategy at this point which is that before California Democrats have said well gee we can get rid of Davis but we still have Bustamante who is also a Democrat. The Davis case now is uh uh. It's like me the Democrat or it's a Republican, so he's hoping that will bring home his base.
BROWN: Candy, thank you very much, Candy Crowley out in Los Angeles tonight.
Some other news around the country apart from the California recall believe it or not and they all make the national roundup or some of them do in any case.
First Lady Laura Bush in Paris today, first stop on a European tour, greeted warmly by the French President Jacques Chirac. The first lady is in the French capital to mark the return of the United States to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The baseball season is over for all but eight Major League teams, including my beloved Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers will tell you they feel like winners. On the last day of regular season the Tigers clubbed the Twins and did not tie the Major League record for losses in a single season set at 120 by the infamous 1962, always lovable, New York Mets. The Tigers ended up losing 119 games.
And, in Boston, a five-foot 300-pound gorilla escaped from the local zoo. Little Joe injured at least one person, not seriously, after bolting from the Franklin Park Zoo. It's not clear yet how the animal escaped. He was finally subdued with four tranquilizer darts.
Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the uproar over the CIA story, more on the operative who was outed and the questions of the administration's involvement.
And a little bit later a look at the struggle wounded Americans face when they get home from Iraq.
This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Say what you will about the "Washington Post." We only say good things. This much is indisputable. Stories in the weekend edition often lead a newscast on Monday, the latest, the CIA operative who was forced in from the cold.
We're joined now by Mike Allen who had the byline or byline and a half I think on this one over the weekend. Mike, it's good to have you. This story literally has been floating out there since mid, late July. I looked at an e-mail I got in August about it. Why did it become news now?
MIKE ALLEN, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, Aaron, why didn't you act on that e-mail? You would have had a big scoop. You're right.
BROWN: Thank you. You're absolutely right.
ALLEN: You're right this built unbelievably slowly. Robert Novak's column disclosing this name appeared on July 14. We learned today that the first CIA written request for an investigation went to the Justice Department at the end of July.
But at the end of late last week how does anything come out in Washington, there was a briefing for some lawmakers on the Hill on the progress of the investigation that got the ball rolling on this news story. This morning the president in a very small meeting with a couple aides said I want to get to the bottom of this.
BROWN: Just one more question on this. It's not that any specific fact had changed from the first of August when I suspect a lot of people started to hear about this. It's that somebody in Congress took it more seriously.
ALLEN: Well, that's right. Somebody in Congress started talking about it so more people in the administration started talking about it.
BROWN: One of the things about your piece I found interesting is in an administration that's been pretty disciplined is there is now some backbiting if you will around the story, people talking about the leakers as not being very smart.
ALLEN: Yes, there's a lot of interest in what the motives are both of the leakers and the people talking about the leakers. One administration official who talked to us this weekend said that they thought that the leak was wrong and they thought it was a miscalculation that it may have hurt the administration more than it hurt Joe Wilson.
BROWN: And the motive is the motive for or -- let me try it this way. Based on your reporting was the motive for the leak essentially what Mr. Wilson has said it was, Ambassador Wilson, that it was revenge?
ALLEN: Yes, in addition to that Ambassador Wilson has said that he thought it was to intimidate others who might come forward. My colleague, Howard Kurtz, today talked to another one of the reporters who was told the name before it was published and their sense was just that the administration official thought that Joe Wilson was getting a big ride in the media and they wanted to sort of cast doubt on his whole investigation, which sort of pulled the plug out of the Niger uranium element.
BROWN: From what you've been able to find out how many reporters were called on this? Was it somebody just picking up the phone book and looking under reporters in the yellow pages and making cold calls?
ALLEN: It seems to be that this was a place where these were officials that had relationships with the reporters. There were some high profile people that were called. There's a variety of reasons. One thing that a lot of journalists started talking about among themselves today is why more people didn't do the story at the time.
But we were told that some people were uncomfortable with it. Some people thought it was a little bit off the point of what was being said about Ambassador Wilson so there were a variety of reasons but this weekend they all came together and no there's a great deal of attention to who talked to whom about this at what point.
BROWN: A couple more. What do you make of the White House reaction to it all today?
ALLEN: Well, as John King pointed out at the top of the broadcast they decided not to do any internal investigation. Nobody is being called in to ask what they said. At the briefing today, one reporter said it reminded them of a don't ask, don't tell investigation.
What the White House said is if this becomes a formal investigation, if the Justice Department proceeds then we will put in place a formal apparatus. And, by the way, Aaron, we talked about how it began slowly. It could unfold slowly.
Another reporter at "The Post" says that it could take months to decide just whether to go ahead and if they form a formal investigation then they'll start querying people in the White House.
And you talked at the top about the good old days. You may have seen Senator Lieberman today on the presidential campaign trail wants to bring back the independent counsel law.
BROWN: Is there just a -- briefly, is there more here to report do you think or is the essential story there out and it's just a question of how people react to it?
ALLEN: Well, the White House is hoping to sort of smother this. They're very good with picking a few points and sticking with them.
Scott McClellan had a 45-minute briefing today, but everything he said could be boiled down to four points. And that's how they plan to go ahead. Tomorrow, the president will be out in the Midwest talking about the economy. We'll see what the stories are.
BROWN: Mike, thanks a lot. Nice piece of work over the weekend -- Mike Allen, "The Washington Post" tonight.
In other news, in the Middle East today, the nouns are depressingly the same as they ever were: militants, explosive, weapons cache. It all sounds familiar, but for -- here is CNN's Matthew Chance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israel's crackdown on terror, but this is no Palestinian militant. Instead, alleged members of a radical Jewish gang who police say were bent on violence are now in custody.
MAJ. GEN. SHAHAR AYMON, ISRAELI POLICE: This is a small group that were victims of Palestinian terror, and it's revenge. We stopped them. It's all right. It's good. This is the law. This is how countries like Israel has to do.
CHANCE: Imagine the carnage these weapons and explosives could have caused. Police say the militants were planning to bomb a school for Palestinian girls. Some of the guns have been linked to unsolved murders in the West Bank.
The children of Bed Taadasar (ph) and Hebron, contentious Jewish settlement and the home of at least one of the accused. Built on occupied land, this is a community under constant threat.
Residents deny there are violent Jewish extremists living among them.
DAVID WILDER, JEWISH COMMUNITY IN HEBRON: Arabs are demanding. They're saying you're killing our people and you're arresting our terrorists. Why don't you deal with the Jewish terrorists? So then the Israeli government has to come up with something to show the world, Look, we're doing something about our own.
CHANCE: Israel's own have proved devastating in the past. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin here assassinated by a right-wing Jewish student Higal Amir opposed to the Oslo peace process.
A year earlier, Barak Goldstein stormed a mosque in Hebron, opening fire on the worshipers. Twenty-nine Palestinians were killed before he was overpowered and lynched.
Today, known radicals like Baruch Marzel, who wants Palestinians evicted from Israel and the West Bank, publicly distance themselves from violence. But he says revenge will be exacted if the Israeli army can't stop attacks against Jews.
BARUCH MARZEL, JEWISH SETTLER ACTIVIST: I think there is a great danger, unfortunate, that if the government will do exactly what America does in Iraq and in Afghanistan to the Arab terrorists, people will take these in their hands.
CHANCE: It seems that on both sides of this Israeli-Palestinian conflict, extremism, left unchecked, poses a deadly threat.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Hebron.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A few more items making news around the world tonight before we go to break. Another audiotape is out there, said to be from al Qaeda's No. 2 man. In this latest message, there is a threat to Pakistan's President Musharraf, who you'll recall was in New York at the U.N. last week. The tape calls President Musharraf a traitor.
Not too many hurricanes slam into Hurricane, but Hurricane Juan did, wheeling into Halifax, Nova Scotia, leaving downed trees, downed power lines and general misery. Two people died, reportedly, as a result of the storm.
And things tonight back to normal in Italy, which endured a blackout that affected most all of the country over the weekend. The power outage is believed to have been caused when a storm caused a tree to smash into a power line in a single place in a single country, Switzerland, not far from the Italian border.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: Amid questions over what we knew and what didn't know before we went to war with Iraq and whether staying there is worth the price, we'll also look at one place where American money and effort may be paying off.
Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Much more on NEWSNIGHT to come: the Iraq story, both good and bad; morning papers, too.
We take a break first. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In Congress this week, there will be plenty of discussion about the president's request for $87 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What's getting particular attention is that portion of the money that's going to rebuild Iraq, about $20 billion. It is, of course, way too early to know if that money will be well spent or if it will be spent at all. But we can show the effects of some of the money that has already been spent in Iraq.
Here is CNN's Michael Holmes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what they all looked like. This is the way they all started, every one of them.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A classroom in northern Iraq before. Here, another school provides the after-view.
JESSICA JORDAN, DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, USAID: The disrepair of the classrooms, of their desks, of their chairs, of the blackboards, more importantly, however, the disrepair in the bathrooms, no water. Many didn't have electricity. Many had never had water. Many had never had electricity.
HOLMES: It's taken months and upwards of $140 million, but more than 1,000 Iraqi schools have been given a face-lift and a new outlook.
JABAR AL-AMIRI, HEADMASTER (through translator): The old curriculum was information that wasn't based on actual facts. It's just information being poured on the students. There were weaknesses in teaching methods and in additional things given with the books to increase the facts.
HOLMES: At headmaster Jabar al-Amiri's school in Baghdad, refurbished desks, patched-up bullet holes, scrubbed bathrooms and Baathist slogans painted over.
Jessica Jordan says only three-quarters of Iraqi's schoolchildren actually go to school and many leave by age 12, something USAID and others want to change. For many of those who do go to school this Wednesday, a present, quite likely their first school bag.
To go in those school bags, Baghdad printing presses roll out new textbooks for a new school year, a very different school year for 4.5 million Iraqi schoolkids.
(on camera): This is going on all over Iraq at the moment, printing pressing putting out textbooks that carry information, rather than Baath Party slogans, and with pictures that help learning, rather than indoctrination.
(voice-over): That indoctrination began with the very young. This old textbook has a message from Saddam Hussein, saying, among other things, "Americans and Zionists are trying to prevent the publication of this book." It was aimed at primary schoolchildren age 5 to 12. This new version contains the same lessons, minus Saddam's words of wisdom.
Michael Holmes, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Pretty much every aspect of the situation in Iraq has come under criticism over the last couple of months, it seems, from the continuing cost in blood and treasure, to the reasons we went to war in the first place.
Max Boot is not among those critics. He is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributor to "The Weekly Standard," and author of "The Savage Wars of Peace." And he's with us tonight.
It's nice to see you.
Over the weekend, there was much talk again about the quality of intelligence that led the country -- or led the president to take the country into war. Ought the administration just concede at this point that it was bad? MAX BOOT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, there's no question it was bad. It's very hard to argue otherwise. And, clearly, we have a major problem with our intelligence agencies.
But I'm a little bit frustrated with the way the administration is communicating its case for war, which it's not doing a very good job of right now. It could easily say, the evidence was not great, but it was the evidence that everybody had. It was the evidence the Clinton administration had. It was the evidence that the French and the German governments had. Everybody agreed Saddam Hussein did have these weapons of mass destruction in the past, that he has used them, that he was developing them and so forth.
But the larger issue is, is Iraq a better place now, is the world a better place now that this tyrant is gone? And I think it's very hard for anybody, whether it's Howard Dean or anybody else, who is criticizing the administration to actually make the case and say, well, I wish Saddam were still in power. Nobody really says that. And the administration should get some credit for toppling him.
BROWN: Well, let's start about that and move on from there. You're right. No one says, was the world better or was Iraq better because Saddam there? Let's come back to it.
If the administration had made the argument that we are going to war in Iraq because Saddam is a tyrant, because there are no human rights, because he is a bad actor in an important region, then the country would have made a judgment, I suppose. But that wasn't the argument. They didn't make that argument, right?
BOOT: Well, they did make that argument, but the one that they highlighted was the weapons of mass destruction argument, because that's what they thought was their strongest case in going to the United Nations. And now we realize, in retrospect, that wasn't the case.
BROWN: But, I guess, Max, I think the question...
BOOT: They made a lot of arguments, but one of which is falling through.
BROWN: I think the question I would like to is, if the argument is, he was a bad actor in human rights and this and that, does the United States of America, under the doctrine of preemptive war, believe it can throw out of office any tyrant it does not like?
BOOT: No, but that's not the case here, because not only was he a tyrant who was violating human rights and slaughtering his own people and threatening his neighbors, but he had also violated 17 U.N. resolutions. And there is no doubt about that.
And so I think the Bush administration actually had a very strong case for war. Now, there was also this widespread assumption that he had ongoing weapons of mass destruction programs, which may in fact not be the case, or at least not active stockpiles. But, again, that wasn't something that the Bush administration dreamed up out of whole cloth. The Clinton administration thought the exactly same thing.
If you go back to their pronouncements from 1998, they sound very similar to what the Bush administration was saying. And, clearly, both are them were misinformed. And we need much better intelligence and we need to be talking about an intelligence overhaul. And I think that's the real issue here. It's not who said what about Joe Wilson's wife. The real issue is, is the CIA, is the DIA, is the rest of our intelligence community up to the job? And I think we really need to think very hard about that.
BROWN: Because I think we both would accept that the next time, if there's a next time, the question is, while the intelligence community says A, B, C, and D, the American public, perhaps to its regret, is going to be somewhat less believing.
BOOT: Absolutely. And the whole world will be less believing.
I think there has been, no question, a huge hit to the credibility of the United States and of the Bush administration here, because the intelligence has not held up. Now, as I say, I don't think that's a willful distortion. I think this is in fact what the intelligence community was saying was being accurately communicated by the White House. But, clearly, the intelligence community didn't know what was going on.
And that's a danger to us. When there is a world out there of people who can perpetrate a 9/11, we have to have better intelligence about what's going on. And so we can't feel terribly secure if the intelligence agencies don't know what's going on in a place like Iraq.
BROWN: Do you worry that all of this and the cost, which I think was lowballed, and other things, will undermine American support, not the government support, but American support for the work that almost everyone now agrees needs to be done?
BOOT: Well, there is no question there has been undermining that's been going on. You see it in public opinion polls.
But, at the same time, I don't really see any responsible voices on the political spectrum saying, hey, let's pick up and leave Iraq and pull our troops out. Not even Howard Dean is saying that. So I think that is something. And I think there is a general widespread realization across the political spectrum that, whatever you may think about the cause for going to war, we're in Iraq now and we have to make the best of it that we can, because, if we leave now, it would be catastrophic.
But if we stay the course, we have a real opportunity to establish the first Arab democracy, which would be something that would make all these other problems pale by comparison with the achievement that we can leave behind.
BROWN: Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it.
BOOT: Thank you.
BROWN: Good point to make.
Still ahead tonight: in the aftermath of the battle, the often ignored story of America's war wounded ignored no more.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We continue tonight a series of occasional reports on those who have been wounded in Iraq. Their stories and their struggles have largely been untold.
But like the search for weapons of mass destruction or the opening of schools in Iraq, their circumstances are part of the larger story that is the war. We daily report on the deaths of American soldiers. Another died today in a bombing. Three of his comrades were wounded, 1,600 so far in the war. Some will be up and out of the hospital in no time. Others will never really heal.
Many end up at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, from where Barbara Starr reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost daily, U.S. convoys under attack, burning vehicles, soldiers dying and many more wounded.
SGT. MICHAEL CAIN, U.S. ARMY: You see things happen before your eyes that you never thought you would even imagine.
STARR: On August 10, 22-year-old Sergeant Michael Cain's truck hit a land mine, one leg amputated, a knee and arm shattered, massive shrapnel wounds.
CAIN: Ironically, I was the medic. So I was the one screaming for help.
STARR: Twenty-two-year-old specialist Corey McArthy's (ph) vehicle hit an explosive device, his hand shredded. Now, as they recover here on Ward 57, the numbers of wounded continue to grow, more than 1,600. Is their plight understood?
CAIN: I think there's more soldiers that are wounded than anyone would think.
STARR (on camera): Do Americans understand that?
CAIN: Me, I really don't think they do, because they're not there. They're not seeing what's going on. And they're not hearing about it a lot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outside of the military community, they don't really know what's going on. A lot of the press hasn't been about the wounded soldiers. All you see on TV is, like, two soldiers were injured. And they don't really know who they were or where they're from.
STARR (voice-over): With the hospital commander, a moment for laughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am Arnold. I am here to run for governor of California.
STARR: General Kevin Kiley notes that, since June, Walter Reed has treated more than 900 injured and sick soldiers, only two days in July and four days in August when no new casualties arrived. Are there more wounded than expected?
Kiley says, in this war, new crucial front-line medical care and better protective bulletproof gear is helping keep soldiers alive.
MAJ. GEN. KEVIN KILEY, WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: I think we're seeing soldiers live that might not have lived.
STARR: For the soldiers, just one issue:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the big thing that the soldiers are concerned about, is when they're going home. We don't understand why we should be there. You see everybody get injured and you're not understanding why.
CAIN: We're giving our life to save other people. And the money, I think -- me personally, I think it's ridiculous, spending all that money.
STARR: But absolute loyalty to their comrades. Both men want to go back to Iraq.
CAIN: I feel like I'm letting them down by being here, even though what happened to me, the reason why I'm here. I just feel like I'm letting them down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to be back here. All this good treatment of being able to eat, while they're getting one meal a day and two bottles of water. I would rather be out there with them and sucking it up.
STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, on Ward 57, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We'll take a break. Morning papers when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: That's music to my ears.
Time to check morning papers from around the country. We'll begin out West. Don't know why I hesitated there. I know where "The Oregonian" is. It's in Portland, Oregon. Their lead story: "No Health Insurance on the Rise. People lacking coverage grows by 2.4 million nationally." Oregon is one of 18 states where the numbers increased markedly. This is a good story, I think. And it's a tough one for the country.
Down at the bottom here, "Stoudamire's Attorney Argues Search Illegal." This is the basketball player found again with marijuana. I think like once a month or something, this happens. Anyway, that's in court now.
"San Francisco Chronicle," as long as we're out West: "Rivals Take Off Gloves." OK, it's not the most original headline I ever heard in my life. "Rivals Take Off Gloves As Recall Vote Nears. Schwarzenegger, Davis Direct Salvos Only at Each Other." There was something else. No, there wasn't. Anyway, that's the "San Francisco Chronicle."
"The Cincinnati Enquirer." There's a lot of papers. It's hard for me to keep track of them all. "The Cincinnati Enquirer" leads local, as we say: "$1.8 Billion for I-75 Fix Proposed. Plan Includes More Lanes and Light Rail." That's a good local story. They also put on the front page polling. "Opinion on Bush Remains Divided a Year After Iraq Speech," which, you'll recall, took place in Cincinnati. And that's why it's on the front page. "Ratings Wane," according to "The Cincinnati Enquirer."
"The Miami Herald." I like this story a lot, right in the middle of the front page. "Cheap Cuban Medicines Fill Miami Cabinets." We've talked a lot about importing drugs from Canada and the rest. Well, apparently, a lot of drugs are coming up, legal drugs, or prescription drugs -- you know what I mean -- coming up coming up from Cuba as well.
"The Washington Times." How much time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-five.
BROWN: Twenty-five.
I like the picture. Does Mrs. Bush look happy there, getting a little kiss on the hand from Jacques Chirac? Not to me, she doesn't.
Fifteen. Let's do "The Chicago Sun-Times." A Grand Opening For Soldier Field," the new football stadium. The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "chipper," as in Chipper Jones, right, because they're playing Atlanta in the World Series -- or in the playoffs or whatever it's called.
We'll see you tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern. Good night for all of us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Agent; Rough Patch for Governor Gray Davis>
Aired September 29, 2003 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
It seems like the good old days, doesn't it, or perhaps the bad old days depending on your point of view. There were calls in Washington today for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the White House.
It is, of course, not likely to happen. The country seemed to have its fill of special prosecutors during the Clinton years but it is an interesting argument. Can the administration be trusted to investigate itself over the outing of a CIA agent? We suspect the answer, as it so often does, depends on who you voted for.
The story begins the whip tonight. CNN's David Ensor starts us off, David, a headline from you tonight.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, at the request of the CIA the Justice Department is looking into whether laws were broken when the name of an undercover CIA officer was given to at least one journalist, allegedly by senior Bush administration officials. The move has ignited a storm of controversy here in Washington.
BROWN: David, thank you.
The White House next, the controversy landed there, our Senior White House Correspondent John King has the watch, John a headline.
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the White House is insisting that that Justice Department investigation is enough. The White House says there's no need for an internal White House investigation, no need for a special counsel but to no surprise, perhaps, the Democrats running for president and Democrats in Congress say no way. They're putting pressure on the president to ask John Ashcroft to name a special prosecutor -- Aaron.
BROWN: John, thank you.
The do-not-call story became an alphabet soup today. CNN Financial Correspondent Fred Katayama with that, Fred a headline.
FRED KATAYAMA, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the FCC rushed to the aid of the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission had to put its do-not-call list on hold so the Federal Communications Commission said it will play cop and enforce the rules against the telemarketers. BROWN: We'll take notes as we go.
And, finally, to California, a rough patch for the Governor Gray Davis, CNN's Candy Crowley in Los Angeles, Candy a headline from you.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, you know those 135 names of people who want to be governor of California? Well, the current Governor Gray Davis is only focused on one. He thinks this is a race between him and Arnold Schwarzenegger and the polls indicate he may be right.
BROWN: Candy, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up in the hour ahead a story we think gets far too little play, the hundreds of troops who left part of themselves on the battlefield in Iraq and their battle back to health. It is a sad and inspiring story at the same time. Barbara Starr turned a terrific piece for us tonight.
And, as always, the stories making front page news tomorrow, our look at morning papers, rooster and all, all that and more in the hour ahead.
We begin tonight with a dark corner of a murky place with a lot to learn and a long way to go. There ought to be a better way of characterizing the affair brewing in Washington over the CIA operative, her husband, the White House and the war but there isn't not yet, certainly nothing quick and snappy like scandal or cover-up or anything with a "gate" in it, though at the end of the day, one day it may turn out to be all of the above or nothing at all.
So far we can only say two things for certain. There is clearly growing political dimensions to this and there are still far more questions than there are answers.
We have two reports tonight. We begin first with CNN's David Ensor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR (voice-over): At the request of CIA lawyers, the Justice Department is looking into whether to launch a full investigation into the leak of the name of a CIA operative, her face concealed here, at her husband Joseph Wilson's request.
JOSEPH WILSON, FORMER AMBASSADOR: I must say if it was just to -- out of spite or for revenge it is really, truly despicable.
ENSOR: Former Ambassador Wilson is the man sent by the CIA to investigate whether Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson says he debunked, though President Bush went on to mention it anyway during his State of the Union message. Wilson says the leak was payback for his criticism of the administration's Iraq policy.
WILSON: I believe that it came out of the White House. I have sources who have told me that.
ENSOR: This man does know where the story came from, Bob Novak, syndicated columnist and CNN contributor, named Wilson's wife as an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction in a July column quoting two senior administration officials. Now he's calling the controversy Bush bashing and declining to reveal his sources.
ROBERT NOVAK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July, I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction. Another senior official told me the same thing.
ENSOR: At the CIA four years ago, former President Bush, Sr. made his views about such leaks crystal clear.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have nothing by contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are in my view the most insidious of traitors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: U.S. officials say if caught a leaker could face considerable jail time since exposing a CIA covert operative is a felony and, of course, it can cause sources that have been developed over an entire career to run dry -- Aaron.
BROWN: What constitutes a crime here? Mr. Novak for printing this, one assumes, is not guilty of any crime so where would the crime be?
ENSOR: The crime would be in telling Mr. Novak and others we understand also. As many as six other journalists have been told what the name was of a clandestine CIA operative. U.S. officials when they become U.S. officials sign documents saying they won't do that and they understand it's a felony to do so.
BROWN: I don't want to parse Mr. Novak's words but what he said was he wasn't called. There is, as you indicated, the suggestion out there that whether he was or not a lot of other reporters were in an effort to plant the story.
ENSOR: Well, I know of one other at least who had a conversation with a Bush administration official in which the Bush administration official told them the name of this person, so there are at least two journalists that were told. Who called who, well Bob Novak says he did the calling.
BROWN: David, thank you very much, David Ensor in Washington.
On now to the White House where aside from a denial today the story had more to do with what didn't happen and what was not said.
Once again, our Senior White House Correspondent John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): The president quickly left the room after this afternoon bill signing, ignoring shouted questions. His spokesman says Mr. Bush sees no need for an internal White House investigation and no need for an outside investigation by a special prosecutor.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: They should be pursued to the fullest extent by the appropriate agency and the appropriate agency is the Department of Justice.
KING: White House Chief of Staff Andy Card told senior staffers Monday anyone with information about the leak should contact the Justice Department but there was no formal directive to the White House staff and the president is not asking for an internal review despite reports the illegal leak came from within the White House.
MCCLELLAN: It's not our practice to go and try to chase down anonymous sources every time there's a report in the media.
KING: Ambassador Wilson initially blamed top Bush political adviser Carl Rove for the leak but Wilson now says he's not sure and Rove emphatically denies any role.
Democrats and other Bush critics are demanding a special prosecutor because they say Attorney General Ashcroft, a Bush appointee, cannot be trusted to lead such a sensitive investigation.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: There is a clear conflict of interest for the Justice Department.
KING: The Democrats running for president are joining the call for a special prosecutor, a reminder the Justice Department review raises both legal and political questions for a president who made honestly and integrity a major campaign theme.
JOHN PODESTA, FMR. CLINTON CHIEF OF STAFF, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: I think that the White House would be prudent right now to issue some at least warnings and directives to preserve e-mails, to preserve phone records, to take the kind of prudent steps that are necessary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: The White House says no such directives have been issued because the Justice Department has not asked for any records or any interviews that despite the fact that the CIA asked for this investigation several weeks ago.
Now, in a letter to the president tonight, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and several of his senior colleagues say that is proof to them that Attorney General Ashcroft is not taking this matter seriously. They say the president should immediately back and call on his attorney general to name an independent investigator -- Aaron.
BROWN: John, I expect this is a question I'm going to ask a couple times today. What if anything will keep this story alive, if that's a fair way to put it, or is it a kind of one or two day story that goes away because there's nothing new to report?
KING: Well, we haven't heard from the attorney general. That could come as early as tomorrow. He has the ball right now. He has to decide whether to go from a preliminary inquiry to a full inquiry. If he stops it at the preliminary inquiry and shuts it down you can be certain the Democrats will cry foul and we haven't heard directly from the president since we learned this investigation, the preliminary investigation was underway.
Those are the next two steps. What does the attorney general do? What does the president say? And, many here at the White House believe that if the pressure mounts in the days ahead that they'll have to do something here at least instruct the staff to make sure they don't destroy any phone records, any e-mail records.
They did that back in the Enron investigation but back then there were specific allegations. This White House says there's no specific allegation just yet so it won't do anything but that answer will now stand the test of the political debate.
BROWN: John, thank you very much, John King our Senior White House Correspondent.
It's fair to say Mike Allen's reporting in the "Washington Post" got this story back on the front pages. Mr. Allen will join us a little bit later in the program tonight to talk more about it.
There is other news of day to deal with first and we begin there with the do-not-call list. After three court rulings, a pair of bills in Congress, the FTC, the FCC and all the rest, only one thing seems clear. A lot of lawyers won't be going home this week for dinner.
For everyone else, included those of us here, the question remains come this Wednesday will our dinner come with aluminum siding for just three easy payments or not? Three courts have spoken and there's almost certainty more will come.
Here again, CNN's Fred Katayama.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATAYAMA (voice-over): The president wanted the public to focus on this.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So today I'm pleased to sign this important piece of legislation into law.
KATAYAMA: Mr. Bush did that to grant the Federal Trade Commission the authority to run its do-not-call list but a federal court ruling last week blocked the trade commission from implementing that starting Wednesday. Enter the Federal Communication Commission in the role as cop.
MARTIN POWELL, FCC CHAIRMAN: There has not been any court case that has in any way disturbed our rule and it is for that reason that we have every intention for them to go in effect as scheduled and enforce them as planned.
KATAYAMA: Consumers have registered more than 50 million numbers on the list which sought to fine telemarketers that violate their wishes but a judge ruled that the FTC list was unconstitutional because it violated free speech. The FTC's rules ban businesses from making unsolicited calls while allowing charities, politicians, and pollsters to do so.
MARTIN REDISH, PROFESSOR, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW: The Constitution is not a popularity contest and that's especially true of the First Amendment right of free expression.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KATAYAMA: The nation's largest telemarketing association said tonight it will not pursue legal action to stop the FCC. Meanwhile, the FTC has appealed the judge's ruling. Even FCC Chairman Powell concedes that the one thing that can stop all of the agencies is if the appeals court rules that the list is unconstitutional -- Aaron.
BROWN: OK. You got to help me with this. Just go back to the Denver court ruling which said the rule was unconstitutional. As we sit here tonight is that ruling in effect or is it not?
KATAYAMA: Well, as of right now that's in effect and that's why the FTC is doing -- is not doing anything and has put its list on hold. Now, the FTC has appealed that decision. Some legal experts predict that this might go all the way up to the Supreme Court if they can't settle it at the appeals court level. Whatever the appeals court decides, the side that loses is likely to request that the Supreme Court review it -- Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you very much. We'll keep working through this one.
There have been many names linked to corporate wrongdoing in the last couple of years but not much to show for it as it turns out. Today, the first big fish went on trial. Dennis Kozlowski, the former head of Tyco, faced charges of looting and really looting his company.
Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): In an era of corporate scandal and excess, Dennis Kozlowski has come to personify greed. The former chief executive of Tyco today entered the same New York State court where he pled not guilty to begin fighting criminal charges he used the company as his personal piggybank, looting $600 million in partnership with his chief financial officer and now co-defendant Mark Schwartz.
STEPHEN CUTLER, SEC ENFORCEMENT DIRECTOR: This is yet another case of corporate executives abusing their positions of trust.
CHERNOFF: Kozlowski's lifestyle has become famous for being so rich, $12 million in art, a Park Avenue apartment for his ex-wife, a mansion in this Boca Raton complex, and an $18 million Fifth Avenue duplex lavishly furnished with a $6,000 floral patterned shower curtain and a $15,000 antique umbrella stand.
When Kozlowski rose to the top of Tyco he joined the world of philanthropy on the company's bill, donating $5 million to his alma mater Seton Hall University. Defense attorneys have argued the company's auditors and board signed off on the stock grants, bonuses and forgiven loans that enriched Kozlowski.
(on camera): The Manhattan district attorney is using an organized crime statute to prosecute Kozlowski, enterprise corruption. Kozlowski faces an additional 30 criminal counts, including grand larceny. If convicted, he could face the maximum prison term of 30 years.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the battle over California coming down to two names, Davis or Schwarzenegger. Candy Crowley reports.
And later, a look at the positive side of what's happening in Iraq, rebuilding the country's school system, a break first.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: When asked for his favorite song, the first President Bush once said "Accentuate the Positive." Ronald Reagan was famous for his story of the boy digging through the stable because he knew there had to be a pony in there somewhere.
Optimism, or the appearance of it, is pretty much a job requirement in elected politics so what to make of Gray Davis. Eight days before the California recall election accentuating the positive just got tougher and going negative more tempting.
Here's CNN's Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY (voice-over): One week to save his job and the governor has boiled this rowdy, complicate, never before race into an old story line, Davis versus Goliath.
GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: I weigh maybe 165 pounds on a good day. I'm ready to go to him toe-to-toe but he seems to be the one on the run here. CROWLEY: He's trying to goad Arnold Schwarzenegger into a debate or at least make it seem like he's afraid to debate. That's what underdogs do. The latest CNN Gallup poll shows Davis qualifies. Sixty-three percent of likely voters want to dump the governor. Forty percent would vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger on the second half of the ballot.
If polls can actually track this weird election that would make Schwarzenegger the frontrunner, which is why he won't debate, he's new to politics but he catches on fast.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm thinking about just to stay in message that's the most important thing.
CROWLEY: The governor, who spent the summer working on his softer, gentler side, has changed his game from bingo to hard ball.
ANNOUNCER: He ducks tough questions, didn't vote in 13 of the last 21 elections, and now he refuses to debate the governor he's trying to replace.
CROWLEY: Message, do you really want a newbie running California, a Republican newbie in a heavily Democratic state? However unusual this election it's down to politics 101. Davis in a corner returns to his base hoping to boost voter turnout. Monday, with an assist from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, it was Latinos.
Schwarzenegger on a roll wants to look inevitable and say as little as possible to avoid poll changing mistakes. The notoriously conservative Republican Party has endorsed Schwarzenegger. His poll numbers apparently spoke louder than his moderate social views. So, Republicans are falling in line, most of them.
TOM MCCLINTOCK (R), GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: To Gray Davis I say your debate challenge is accepted.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: That, of course, is conservative Republican Tom McClintock still in there kicking and accepting a debate he was never offered. That's what underdogs do. It is politics 101 -- Aaron.
BROWN: It is. What are the theories out there for what is a pretty significant change in the polling in two weeks?
CROWLEY: Well the theory in the Gray Davis camp is that the poll is wrong and there will be another poll out soon and that you can't really count who's going to vote. The other theory is that the debate came, which featured Arnold Schwarzenegger and the internal polling shows us that, in fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger picked up some good support during that debate.
The other thing is that Gray Davis, of course, has signed that bill that allows illegal aliens to have driver's licenses in California and that's upset a lot of voters. So, kind of put all that together and it could lead to something like this, although I caution you again that the Gray Davis camp says tomorrow is another day and probably another poll.
BROWN: Well, we'll give you that actually and Lieutenant Governor Bustamante going nowhere, sort of stuck between 25 and 30- ish.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. Well, actually in this poll he was down to 18, which says to you -- which sort of explains Davis' strategy at this point which is that before California Democrats have said well gee we can get rid of Davis but we still have Bustamante who is also a Democrat. The Davis case now is uh uh. It's like me the Democrat or it's a Republican, so he's hoping that will bring home his base.
BROWN: Candy, thank you very much, Candy Crowley out in Los Angeles tonight.
Some other news around the country apart from the California recall believe it or not and they all make the national roundup or some of them do in any case.
First Lady Laura Bush in Paris today, first stop on a European tour, greeted warmly by the French President Jacques Chirac. The first lady is in the French capital to mark the return of the United States to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The baseball season is over for all but eight Major League teams, including my beloved Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers will tell you they feel like winners. On the last day of regular season the Tigers clubbed the Twins and did not tie the Major League record for losses in a single season set at 120 by the infamous 1962, always lovable, New York Mets. The Tigers ended up losing 119 games.
And, in Boston, a five-foot 300-pound gorilla escaped from the local zoo. Little Joe injured at least one person, not seriously, after bolting from the Franklin Park Zoo. It's not clear yet how the animal escaped. He was finally subdued with four tranquilizer darts.
Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the uproar over the CIA story, more on the operative who was outed and the questions of the administration's involvement.
And a little bit later a look at the struggle wounded Americans face when they get home from Iraq.
This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Say what you will about the "Washington Post." We only say good things. This much is indisputable. Stories in the weekend edition often lead a newscast on Monday, the latest, the CIA operative who was forced in from the cold.
We're joined now by Mike Allen who had the byline or byline and a half I think on this one over the weekend. Mike, it's good to have you. This story literally has been floating out there since mid, late July. I looked at an e-mail I got in August about it. Why did it become news now?
MIKE ALLEN, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, Aaron, why didn't you act on that e-mail? You would have had a big scoop. You're right.
BROWN: Thank you. You're absolutely right.
ALLEN: You're right this built unbelievably slowly. Robert Novak's column disclosing this name appeared on July 14. We learned today that the first CIA written request for an investigation went to the Justice Department at the end of July.
But at the end of late last week how does anything come out in Washington, there was a briefing for some lawmakers on the Hill on the progress of the investigation that got the ball rolling on this news story. This morning the president in a very small meeting with a couple aides said I want to get to the bottom of this.
BROWN: Just one more question on this. It's not that any specific fact had changed from the first of August when I suspect a lot of people started to hear about this. It's that somebody in Congress took it more seriously.
ALLEN: Well, that's right. Somebody in Congress started talking about it so more people in the administration started talking about it.
BROWN: One of the things about your piece I found interesting is in an administration that's been pretty disciplined is there is now some backbiting if you will around the story, people talking about the leakers as not being very smart.
ALLEN: Yes, there's a lot of interest in what the motives are both of the leakers and the people talking about the leakers. One administration official who talked to us this weekend said that they thought that the leak was wrong and they thought it was a miscalculation that it may have hurt the administration more than it hurt Joe Wilson.
BROWN: And the motive is the motive for or -- let me try it this way. Based on your reporting was the motive for the leak essentially what Mr. Wilson has said it was, Ambassador Wilson, that it was revenge?
ALLEN: Yes, in addition to that Ambassador Wilson has said that he thought it was to intimidate others who might come forward. My colleague, Howard Kurtz, today talked to another one of the reporters who was told the name before it was published and their sense was just that the administration official thought that Joe Wilson was getting a big ride in the media and they wanted to sort of cast doubt on his whole investigation, which sort of pulled the plug out of the Niger uranium element.
BROWN: From what you've been able to find out how many reporters were called on this? Was it somebody just picking up the phone book and looking under reporters in the yellow pages and making cold calls?
ALLEN: It seems to be that this was a place where these were officials that had relationships with the reporters. There were some high profile people that were called. There's a variety of reasons. One thing that a lot of journalists started talking about among themselves today is why more people didn't do the story at the time.
But we were told that some people were uncomfortable with it. Some people thought it was a little bit off the point of what was being said about Ambassador Wilson so there were a variety of reasons but this weekend they all came together and no there's a great deal of attention to who talked to whom about this at what point.
BROWN: A couple more. What do you make of the White House reaction to it all today?
ALLEN: Well, as John King pointed out at the top of the broadcast they decided not to do any internal investigation. Nobody is being called in to ask what they said. At the briefing today, one reporter said it reminded them of a don't ask, don't tell investigation.
What the White House said is if this becomes a formal investigation, if the Justice Department proceeds then we will put in place a formal apparatus. And, by the way, Aaron, we talked about how it began slowly. It could unfold slowly.
Another reporter at "The Post" says that it could take months to decide just whether to go ahead and if they form a formal investigation then they'll start querying people in the White House.
And you talked at the top about the good old days. You may have seen Senator Lieberman today on the presidential campaign trail wants to bring back the independent counsel law.
BROWN: Is there just a -- briefly, is there more here to report do you think or is the essential story there out and it's just a question of how people react to it?
ALLEN: Well, the White House is hoping to sort of smother this. They're very good with picking a few points and sticking with them.
Scott McClellan had a 45-minute briefing today, but everything he said could be boiled down to four points. And that's how they plan to go ahead. Tomorrow, the president will be out in the Midwest talking about the economy. We'll see what the stories are.
BROWN: Mike, thanks a lot. Nice piece of work over the weekend -- Mike Allen, "The Washington Post" tonight.
In other news, in the Middle East today, the nouns are depressingly the same as they ever were: militants, explosive, weapons cache. It all sounds familiar, but for -- here is CNN's Matthew Chance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israel's crackdown on terror, but this is no Palestinian militant. Instead, alleged members of a radical Jewish gang who police say were bent on violence are now in custody.
MAJ. GEN. SHAHAR AYMON, ISRAELI POLICE: This is a small group that were victims of Palestinian terror, and it's revenge. We stopped them. It's all right. It's good. This is the law. This is how countries like Israel has to do.
CHANCE: Imagine the carnage these weapons and explosives could have caused. Police say the militants were planning to bomb a school for Palestinian girls. Some of the guns have been linked to unsolved murders in the West Bank.
The children of Bed Taadasar (ph) and Hebron, contentious Jewish settlement and the home of at least one of the accused. Built on occupied land, this is a community under constant threat.
Residents deny there are violent Jewish extremists living among them.
DAVID WILDER, JEWISH COMMUNITY IN HEBRON: Arabs are demanding. They're saying you're killing our people and you're arresting our terrorists. Why don't you deal with the Jewish terrorists? So then the Israeli government has to come up with something to show the world, Look, we're doing something about our own.
CHANCE: Israel's own have proved devastating in the past. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin here assassinated by a right-wing Jewish student Higal Amir opposed to the Oslo peace process.
A year earlier, Barak Goldstein stormed a mosque in Hebron, opening fire on the worshipers. Twenty-nine Palestinians were killed before he was overpowered and lynched.
Today, known radicals like Baruch Marzel, who wants Palestinians evicted from Israel and the West Bank, publicly distance themselves from violence. But he says revenge will be exacted if the Israeli army can't stop attacks against Jews.
BARUCH MARZEL, JEWISH SETTLER ACTIVIST: I think there is a great danger, unfortunate, that if the government will do exactly what America does in Iraq and in Afghanistan to the Arab terrorists, people will take these in their hands.
CHANCE: It seems that on both sides of this Israeli-Palestinian conflict, extremism, left unchecked, poses a deadly threat.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Hebron.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: A few more items making news around the world tonight before we go to break. Another audiotape is out there, said to be from al Qaeda's No. 2 man. In this latest message, there is a threat to Pakistan's President Musharraf, who you'll recall was in New York at the U.N. last week. The tape calls President Musharraf a traitor.
Not too many hurricanes slam into Hurricane, but Hurricane Juan did, wheeling into Halifax, Nova Scotia, leaving downed trees, downed power lines and general misery. Two people died, reportedly, as a result of the storm.
And things tonight back to normal in Italy, which endured a blackout that affected most all of the country over the weekend. The power outage is believed to have been caused when a storm caused a tree to smash into a power line in a single place in a single country, Switzerland, not far from the Italian border.
Still to come on NEWSNIGHT: Amid questions over what we knew and what didn't know before we went to war with Iraq and whether staying there is worth the price, we'll also look at one place where American money and effort may be paying off.
Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Much more on NEWSNIGHT to come: the Iraq story, both good and bad; morning papers, too.
We take a break first. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In Congress this week, there will be plenty of discussion about the president's request for $87 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What's getting particular attention is that portion of the money that's going to rebuild Iraq, about $20 billion. It is, of course, way too early to know if that money will be well spent or if it will be spent at all. But we can show the effects of some of the money that has already been spent in Iraq.
Here is CNN's Michael Holmes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what they all looked like. This is the way they all started, every one of them.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A classroom in northern Iraq before. Here, another school provides the after-view.
JESSICA JORDAN, DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, USAID: The disrepair of the classrooms, of their desks, of their chairs, of the blackboards, more importantly, however, the disrepair in the bathrooms, no water. Many didn't have electricity. Many had never had water. Many had never had electricity.
HOLMES: It's taken months and upwards of $140 million, but more than 1,000 Iraqi schools have been given a face-lift and a new outlook.
JABAR AL-AMIRI, HEADMASTER (through translator): The old curriculum was information that wasn't based on actual facts. It's just information being poured on the students. There were weaknesses in teaching methods and in additional things given with the books to increase the facts.
HOLMES: At headmaster Jabar al-Amiri's school in Baghdad, refurbished desks, patched-up bullet holes, scrubbed bathrooms and Baathist slogans painted over.
Jessica Jordan says only three-quarters of Iraqi's schoolchildren actually go to school and many leave by age 12, something USAID and others want to change. For many of those who do go to school this Wednesday, a present, quite likely their first school bag.
To go in those school bags, Baghdad printing presses roll out new textbooks for a new school year, a very different school year for 4.5 million Iraqi schoolkids.
(on camera): This is going on all over Iraq at the moment, printing pressing putting out textbooks that carry information, rather than Baath Party slogans, and with pictures that help learning, rather than indoctrination.
(voice-over): That indoctrination began with the very young. This old textbook has a message from Saddam Hussein, saying, among other things, "Americans and Zionists are trying to prevent the publication of this book." It was aimed at primary schoolchildren age 5 to 12. This new version contains the same lessons, minus Saddam's words of wisdom.
Michael Holmes, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Pretty much every aspect of the situation in Iraq has come under criticism over the last couple of months, it seems, from the continuing cost in blood and treasure, to the reasons we went to war in the first place.
Max Boot is not among those critics. He is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributor to "The Weekly Standard," and author of "The Savage Wars of Peace." And he's with us tonight.
It's nice to see you.
Over the weekend, there was much talk again about the quality of intelligence that led the country -- or led the president to take the country into war. Ought the administration just concede at this point that it was bad? MAX BOOT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, there's no question it was bad. It's very hard to argue otherwise. And, clearly, we have a major problem with our intelligence agencies.
But I'm a little bit frustrated with the way the administration is communicating its case for war, which it's not doing a very good job of right now. It could easily say, the evidence was not great, but it was the evidence that everybody had. It was the evidence the Clinton administration had. It was the evidence that the French and the German governments had. Everybody agreed Saddam Hussein did have these weapons of mass destruction in the past, that he has used them, that he was developing them and so forth.
But the larger issue is, is Iraq a better place now, is the world a better place now that this tyrant is gone? And I think it's very hard for anybody, whether it's Howard Dean or anybody else, who is criticizing the administration to actually make the case and say, well, I wish Saddam were still in power. Nobody really says that. And the administration should get some credit for toppling him.
BROWN: Well, let's start about that and move on from there. You're right. No one says, was the world better or was Iraq better because Saddam there? Let's come back to it.
If the administration had made the argument that we are going to war in Iraq because Saddam is a tyrant, because there are no human rights, because he is a bad actor in an important region, then the country would have made a judgment, I suppose. But that wasn't the argument. They didn't make that argument, right?
BOOT: Well, they did make that argument, but the one that they highlighted was the weapons of mass destruction argument, because that's what they thought was their strongest case in going to the United Nations. And now we realize, in retrospect, that wasn't the case.
BROWN: But, I guess, Max, I think the question...
BOOT: They made a lot of arguments, but one of which is falling through.
BROWN: I think the question I would like to is, if the argument is, he was a bad actor in human rights and this and that, does the United States of America, under the doctrine of preemptive war, believe it can throw out of office any tyrant it does not like?
BOOT: No, but that's not the case here, because not only was he a tyrant who was violating human rights and slaughtering his own people and threatening his neighbors, but he had also violated 17 U.N. resolutions. And there is no doubt about that.
And so I think the Bush administration actually had a very strong case for war. Now, there was also this widespread assumption that he had ongoing weapons of mass destruction programs, which may in fact not be the case, or at least not active stockpiles. But, again, that wasn't something that the Bush administration dreamed up out of whole cloth. The Clinton administration thought the exactly same thing.
If you go back to their pronouncements from 1998, they sound very similar to what the Bush administration was saying. And, clearly, both are them were misinformed. And we need much better intelligence and we need to be talking about an intelligence overhaul. And I think that's the real issue here. It's not who said what about Joe Wilson's wife. The real issue is, is the CIA, is the DIA, is the rest of our intelligence community up to the job? And I think we really need to think very hard about that.
BROWN: Because I think we both would accept that the next time, if there's a next time, the question is, while the intelligence community says A, B, C, and D, the American public, perhaps to its regret, is going to be somewhat less believing.
BOOT: Absolutely. And the whole world will be less believing.
I think there has been, no question, a huge hit to the credibility of the United States and of the Bush administration here, because the intelligence has not held up. Now, as I say, I don't think that's a willful distortion. I think this is in fact what the intelligence community was saying was being accurately communicated by the White House. But, clearly, the intelligence community didn't know what was going on.
And that's a danger to us. When there is a world out there of people who can perpetrate a 9/11, we have to have better intelligence about what's going on. And so we can't feel terribly secure if the intelligence agencies don't know what's going on in a place like Iraq.
BROWN: Do you worry that all of this and the cost, which I think was lowballed, and other things, will undermine American support, not the government support, but American support for the work that almost everyone now agrees needs to be done?
BOOT: Well, there is no question there has been undermining that's been going on. You see it in public opinion polls.
But, at the same time, I don't really see any responsible voices on the political spectrum saying, hey, let's pick up and leave Iraq and pull our troops out. Not even Howard Dean is saying that. So I think that is something. And I think there is a general widespread realization across the political spectrum that, whatever you may think about the cause for going to war, we're in Iraq now and we have to make the best of it that we can, because, if we leave now, it would be catastrophic.
But if we stay the course, we have a real opportunity to establish the first Arab democracy, which would be something that would make all these other problems pale by comparison with the achievement that we can leave behind.
BROWN: Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it.
BOOT: Thank you.
BROWN: Good point to make.
Still ahead tonight: in the aftermath of the battle, the often ignored story of America's war wounded ignored no more.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We continue tonight a series of occasional reports on those who have been wounded in Iraq. Their stories and their struggles have largely been untold.
But like the search for weapons of mass destruction or the opening of schools in Iraq, their circumstances are part of the larger story that is the war. We daily report on the deaths of American soldiers. Another died today in a bombing. Three of his comrades were wounded, 1,600 so far in the war. Some will be up and out of the hospital in no time. Others will never really heal.
Many end up at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, from where Barbara Starr reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost daily, U.S. convoys under attack, burning vehicles, soldiers dying and many more wounded.
SGT. MICHAEL CAIN, U.S. ARMY: You see things happen before your eyes that you never thought you would even imagine.
STARR: On August 10, 22-year-old Sergeant Michael Cain's truck hit a land mine, one leg amputated, a knee and arm shattered, massive shrapnel wounds.
CAIN: Ironically, I was the medic. So I was the one screaming for help.
STARR: Twenty-two-year-old specialist Corey McArthy's (ph) vehicle hit an explosive device, his hand shredded. Now, as they recover here on Ward 57, the numbers of wounded continue to grow, more than 1,600. Is their plight understood?
CAIN: I think there's more soldiers that are wounded than anyone would think.
STARR (on camera): Do Americans understand that?
CAIN: Me, I really don't think they do, because they're not there. They're not seeing what's going on. And they're not hearing about it a lot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outside of the military community, they don't really know what's going on. A lot of the press hasn't been about the wounded soldiers. All you see on TV is, like, two soldiers were injured. And they don't really know who they were or where they're from.
STARR (voice-over): With the hospital commander, a moment for laughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am Arnold. I am here to run for governor of California.
STARR: General Kevin Kiley notes that, since June, Walter Reed has treated more than 900 injured and sick soldiers, only two days in July and four days in August when no new casualties arrived. Are there more wounded than expected?
Kiley says, in this war, new crucial front-line medical care and better protective bulletproof gear is helping keep soldiers alive.
MAJ. GEN. KEVIN KILEY, WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: I think we're seeing soldiers live that might not have lived.
STARR: For the soldiers, just one issue:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the big thing that the soldiers are concerned about, is when they're going home. We don't understand why we should be there. You see everybody get injured and you're not understanding why.
CAIN: We're giving our life to save other people. And the money, I think -- me personally, I think it's ridiculous, spending all that money.
STARR: But absolute loyalty to their comrades. Both men want to go back to Iraq.
CAIN: I feel like I'm letting them down by being here, even though what happened to me, the reason why I'm here. I just feel like I'm letting them down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to be back here. All this good treatment of being able to eat, while they're getting one meal a day and two bottles of water. I would rather be out there with them and sucking it up.
STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, on Ward 57, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: We'll take a break. Morning papers when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: That's music to my ears.
Time to check morning papers from around the country. We'll begin out West. Don't know why I hesitated there. I know where "The Oregonian" is. It's in Portland, Oregon. Their lead story: "No Health Insurance on the Rise. People lacking coverage grows by 2.4 million nationally." Oregon is one of 18 states where the numbers increased markedly. This is a good story, I think. And it's a tough one for the country.
Down at the bottom here, "Stoudamire's Attorney Argues Search Illegal." This is the basketball player found again with marijuana. I think like once a month or something, this happens. Anyway, that's in court now.
"San Francisco Chronicle," as long as we're out West: "Rivals Take Off Gloves." OK, it's not the most original headline I ever heard in my life. "Rivals Take Off Gloves As Recall Vote Nears. Schwarzenegger, Davis Direct Salvos Only at Each Other." There was something else. No, there wasn't. Anyway, that's the "San Francisco Chronicle."
"The Cincinnati Enquirer." There's a lot of papers. It's hard for me to keep track of them all. "The Cincinnati Enquirer" leads local, as we say: "$1.8 Billion for I-75 Fix Proposed. Plan Includes More Lanes and Light Rail." That's a good local story. They also put on the front page polling. "Opinion on Bush Remains Divided a Year After Iraq Speech," which, you'll recall, took place in Cincinnati. And that's why it's on the front page. "Ratings Wane," according to "The Cincinnati Enquirer."
"The Miami Herald." I like this story a lot, right in the middle of the front page. "Cheap Cuban Medicines Fill Miami Cabinets." We've talked a lot about importing drugs from Canada and the rest. Well, apparently, a lot of drugs are coming up, legal drugs, or prescription drugs -- you know what I mean -- coming up coming up from Cuba as well.
"The Washington Times." How much time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-five.
BROWN: Twenty-five.
I like the picture. Does Mrs. Bush look happy there, getting a little kiss on the hand from Jacques Chirac? Not to me, she doesn't.
Fifteen. Let's do "The Chicago Sun-Times." A Grand Opening For Soldier Field," the new football stadium. The weather tomorrow in Chicago, "chipper," as in Chipper Jones, right, because they're playing Atlanta in the World Series -- or in the playoffs or whatever it's called.
We'll see you tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern. Good night for all of us.
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Agent; Rough Patch for Governor Gray Davis>
